by Lucy Monroe
“Can the enzymes be made to work?” Ramirez asked.
“I’m not prepared to answer that question just yet.”
“Once I have you in my custody, you will answer that question and much more,” Vega said over Ramirez’s phone.
“That is yet another reason not to trust men. I will not negotiate with you, Vega. Tell Ms. Ramirez I will call her tomorrow with my offer.” Lana hung up.
Myk kissed her soundly. “Well, done, doc. I couldn’t have handled it any better myself.”
“Do you think he bought the misandrist attitude?”
“A chauvinist like him? You bet he’ll buy that a successful female scientist is a man-hater. How else could he explain your decision to go into the world of academia rather than marry and have children?”
“Why do you think he’s a chauvinist?” Lana asked. “Ramirez was point man on the kidnapping.”
“I learned a lot more than I wanted to about Vega while interrogating Jorge.” He’d learned that Vega was a crazy bastard who never gave up a pet project and who saw people as highly disposable tools for his benefit and his benefit alone.
Vega tried calling Lana’s personal cell phone, but Claire had rigged it not to go to voice mail, so Lana did not pick up. Myk was sure Vega’s inability to wrest control of the situation from the scientist infuriated him, which kept him just that much more off his game.
All part of Myk’s overall plan. The one he had no intention of revealing until it had run its full course.
Chapter 22
Myk convinced Lana not to worry about copying her enzyme project notes just yet. He told her that he would set a date for delivery that would give her plenty of time to make sure she had a full set of files for herself. He wanted her relaxed, rather than on edge, waiting to complete the plan.
He took her swimming in the pool. They both swam laps before Brett and Claire joined them, Brett starting a water fight that finally broke the aura of tension that had been surrounding Lana.
Myk made a note to thank the other man later.
They had just finished dressing again when Myk’s cell phone rang. It was Whitmore again.
“What’s up, sir?”
“I just got word that Taiwanese troops with covert U.S. manpower support will be converging on the coordinates you provided for the scrap-metal stockpile.”
“We can only hope they find some of the barge crews alive.”
“I’ll let you know how it goes down as soon as I’m briefed.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Just doing my job while you do yours.” Whit paused for a brief moment. “Any updates on the case?”
“We made contact with Vega. We’re going to negotiate the exchange of Lana’s research for his cease and desist in attempting to kidnap her or her assistant.”
“I’m assuming it is research that won’t do him any good.”
“You assume correctly.”
“You think he’ll keep his word?”
“I think we’ll convince him it’s in his best interests to do so.”
“I see. Is this something else I can expect to be glossed over in your report.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Myk, TGP agents don’t work this way.”
“I’m aware of that, sir.”
Whitmore’s sigh was too damn knowing.
“I didn’t intend to quit after this assignment when I took it, sir.”
“You may not have intended to do so, but I would have been surprised, pleasantly I might add, but surprised all the same if you hadn’t.”
“How could you know?”
“I read the file on your last case. A Chernichenko does not take that kind of thing lightly.”
“No, we don’t.”
“You’re burnt out on being a federal agent.”
“The red tape protects the criminals more often than the victims of their crimes.”
“I know it can seem that way.”
“It does.”
“I understand. When Elle finds out, she’ll offer you a job.”
“Her partner already has.”
“Before you accept it, I suggest you consider another possibility?”
“That is?”
“ETRD needs a permanent head of security who knows what he’s doing.”
“You think Mr. Smith would hire me?”
“I know he would.”
“You’ve already talked about it with him?”
“He brought it up.”
“It’s something to think about.”
“I’ll leave it to you to tell him that.”
“Thank you.”
Well, that was a discussion he hadn’t expected to have with his boss, but it had not been unwelcome.
Around two a.m. Claire found Vega’s Mexico compound layout and security schematics. The extraction team was already in place, ready to take action. Two and a half hours later, a drugged, unconscious Ramirez was on a flight headed for the airstrip near the beach house.
Twenty minutes after getting that call, Myk got another from Whitmore.
He woke Lana to give her the news. “Three of Vega’s people are in custody. Two are dead.”
“And the barge crews?”
“Ten are alive. Three died in the firefight between Vega’s men and the Taiwan troops.”
“He had the other twenty killed?”
“As far as the authorities have been able to ascertain, yes. One of the victims told them his other crew members had been tossed into the ocean to drown after their barge was hijacked. Apparently, Vega kept only enough crew members alive to work as slave labor hauling and sorting the scrap metal.”
“That bastard.” Tears filled Lana’s eyes. “That monstrous bastard.”
“You said it.”
Lana blinked away the moisture. “And Ramirez?”
“On her way here.”
“When are you going to call Vega?”
“As soon as you’re ready. I figured you’d want to listen in.”
“I so do.” She grabbed a robe and followed him to the room where Claire had been doing her hacking. It was a state-of-the-art office located in the center of the house and harder to get to than any of the other public rooms.
Unlike Vega’s in his compound. He was egotistical enough to want a corner office. More the fool him.
Brett and Claire were waiting for Myk and Lana. Claire had an earbud in one ear. “I’ll be listening in on the computers I compromised, hoping to find one near where Vega is when he talks to you.”
Brett looked at his wife with pride. “That way if he gives any instructions to his underlings, we’ll know about it.”
The phone was picked up on the second ring. “Speak.” Vega did not sound like he’d been sleeping.
“Vega,” Myk said.
“You. Is your scientist preparing to call Ramirez? You should tell her I do not appreciate being hung up on.” The menace in his voice would have been chilling if Myk didn’t know he could keep Lana safe from the other man. Absolutely.
“Should Dr. Ericson wish to speak to Ramirez she can do so face-to-face.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” But as evil as Vega might be, he wasn’t stupid. He ordered someone to check Ramirez’s room.
Claire gave Myk a thumbs-up letting him know she’d isolated which room Vega was in. He pointed to the printout they’d made of the compound’s layout. Claire nodded and circled Vega’s private corner office.
Myk turned away from the others in the room and sent a text to his brother Roman.
“What have you done with my family?” Vega demanded a few seconds later, sounding on the verge of another one of his tantrums.
“What family?”
“Maria Ramirez.”
“It’s disconcerting, isn’t it?”
“What?” Vega snarled.
“Having your security compromised. Knowing that someone can come in and take anyone they like?”
“Are you saying that’s how your
doctor felt? Am I supposed to feel badly for her?” the drug lord sneered.
“Not at all. After all, your team didn’t succeed, did they? She, and everyone else at ETRD, knows that I will keep them safe. Your people are probably not feeling quite so secure right now.”
“My people know that my retribution is terrible.”
“Talk like that is not going to get you Dr. Ericson’s research.”
“Why would you give it to me?”
“I want your word you won’t come after ETRD’s scientists again.”
“It sounds like you’re worried, even if your people aren’t.”
“No. I am a man who knows how to take the shortest path to my goal.”
“And your goal here is?”
“To get you out of ETRD’s hair, now and forever.”
“And you would trust my word?”
“Are you telling me I shouldn’t?”
“Not at all, merely pointing out I would not be so trusting in the same situation.”
“I see.” While he talked to Vega, Myk wrote a note to Claire and asked her if anyone else was in the room with Vega.
She clicked a few clicks with her mouse and then shook her head. “I don’t hear a second person breathing in the room,” she mouthed.
He nodded. Good.
“You will give me the formula for turning lead into gold?” Vega asked impatiently.
“No. There is no such thing. The enzymes are DNA specific. Dr. Ericson is not convinced they can be made viable at all, but particularly not for metal transformation.”
“So, why the hell should I deal?”
“Because the idea is too tempting to give up on. Dr. Ericson will give you all her research to this point. Your own scientists may be able to do what she can’t. I assume they would be more motivated.”
“And if I decide I want Lana Ericson to do the research for me?”
“You didn’t succeed the first time you tried to take her and you would not succeed again, but if you come after her again, I will come after you.”
“And this should worry me why?”
“Because when Ramirez was taken, that could have been you. Don’t think your additional bedroom alarm complete with floor lasers will save your greedy ass.”
“What the hell do you know about my security system?’
“You’re just now thinking to ask that question?”
“How do I know Dr. Ericson’s notes aren’t forged or altered in some way?” Clearly, Vega didn’t dwell on conversational topics that revealed his own shortcomings.
“We’ll courier you the originals. You can have your scientists test the age on the ink she uses for her notes.”
“And if I don’t take your deal?”
“I’ll leave the consequences to your imagination.”
“I’ll take it.” Vega sounded angry enough to kill, but he had no one on whom to vent his wrath.
That was exactly what Myk wanted to hear. Now, they could get down to the conversation that really mattered.
“I want to know who besides yourself knows about Dr. Ericson’s research.”
“Why?”
“I want a guarantee no one else will come after her because you’ve talked up a technology that does not exist anywhere but in your mind.”
“I don’t share that sort of thing, even with my lieutenants.”
“Are you saying no one else knows?”
“I have a partner. He is the only one besides Ramirez who knows.”
“Where are the notes Ramirez originally stole on the project?”
“Where else would they be? I keep them with me. I had an unfortunate incident where copies of the notes were lost during an associate’s problems with the law,” he admitted.
It was obvious the other man wasn’t worried about Myk’s reaction to the news the notes had been shared with others, which made Myk think he wasn’t bothering to hold anything back.
“So, that associate knows as well?” he asked, pushing.
“He is not a danger to your scientists.”
“How do you figure that?”
“He’s dead. Shot by some bastard federales.”
Myk was that bastard, but now he knew Vega was telling the truth. He sent a final text.
“The project notes will be sent tomorrow,” he lied smoothly to Vega.
“How are you sending them?”
“I got Ramirez out of your compound.” He enjoyed needling the other man’s monumental ego. “I think I can get a file box in.”
“Fine.”
They hung up.
Claire’s eyebrows climbed to her hairline. “He’s calling you lots of nasty names in Spanish.”
“You really think he’ll keep his word?” Brett asked.
“No.”
Claire gasped loudly and then turned a measuring look on Myk. “You really didn’t trust him, did you?”
“He wasn’t a trustworthy man.”
“You said wasn’t,” Lana said with a question in her voice.
Myk met her beautiful gaze. “He would always have been a serious threat to your safety and freedom.”
“What did you do?”
“There was an explosion at the compound,” Claire said when Myk didn’t answer. “I can still hear from my other feeds, but the one that had been coming from Vega’s office is nonfunctional.”
“So, he’s the only one who died?” Lana asked, her tone even.
“If his lieutenant was with him, he died, too. He would not have allowed anyone else to overhear that conversation. But Claire said she didn’t hear another person breathing in the room.”
“How did you do it?”
“Do you really want to know?”
She thought for a second and then shook her head. “Maybe not, but you’ll always keep your promises, won’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it means doing something you’d rather not have to do.”
“Even then.”
She turned to Claire. “He promised me Vega would never take me or get at Casey again.”
Claire whistled under her breath. “I’d say that’s a safe bet now.”
“Yes.”
“Well, as far as I’m concerned, one of Vega’s many enemies got to him,” Brett said.
“Definitely,” Claire said with certainty.
Lana reached up and kissed Myk’s cheek. “Sometimes we have to do horrible things to stop even worse things from happening.” She patted his chest, right over his warrior tattoo. “No one will ever hear a negation of Claire’s assumption from me.” She paused to let that sink in. “I need a shower.”
She left the room and Myk’s body sagged with relief she had not hated him for the steps he’d known had to be taken to keep Vega out of her life.
An insane, sadistic megalomaniac like him would never have given up on his plan to turn lead into gold and flood the financial markets with precious metals. He’d had to be stopped, permanently.
He called Whitmore to update him on the arrival of Ramirez back in the country and tell him about the data on Vega’s organization Claire had gathered. They both agreed it would be best to provide that information to both the CIA and the Colombian government. It would be up to both what they did with it, considering its anonymous source.
Ramirez might still be able to cop a witness protection situation if she was willing to bring down Vega’s lieutenants. The choice, as Myk and Brett had already discussed, would be hers.
Myk followed Lana to their bedroom after his call to Whitmore, but she was still taking a shower when Roman called.
“It’s done.”
“We heard.”
“Claire is a scary woman. Military intelligence should be so lucky to have someone of her caliber working on the Geek Squad.”
“The explosion was contained.”
“One of the benefits to having the buildings designed bombproof like they were. We planted the explosives in his office when the extraction team was inside getting Rami
rez out. They didn’t see us, and neither did Vega’s people.”
“Naturally.”
“As we agreed, I detonated when you confirmed the information on Lana’s experiments were with Vega.”
“He didn’t tell anyone else except Musa about the enzymes.”
“That’s good to know. Do I need to take care of Musa?”
“No. I’ve got it covered.”
“Mind telling me by who?”
“Lana met some people after she broke out of her prison lab in northern Turkey. They helped her get back to the States.”
“They have access to Musa?”
“Yes. He will die of what will look like natural causes within the week.”
“Little brother, you have a ruthless side I never would have guessed existed.”
“Only when it comes to the people I love.”
“So, Baba was right. You are in love.”
“Yes.”
“Does she feel the same way?”
“She trusts me.”
“From what you told me about her, that’s major for her.”
“Yeah, I’d say it was love. I just hope she’s figured that out because I’m not going anywhere.”
“Hell, Myk, I have faith in your powers of persuasion. You got Elle out of the country when she had a case of interest in her perimeter.”
“Lana helped.”
“Really? I already thought I liked her, now I know it.”
“She was on her best behavior at the wedding.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes, she has a tendency to talk to herself and not filter what comes out of her mouth.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“It has its moments.”
Roman made a sound of amusement. It wasn’t a full chuckle, but then Myk could count on one hand the number of times he’d heard his big brother laugh in the last ten years—and he would have fingers left over.
Lana came out of the bathroom and found Myk waiting for her on the end of the bed. He looked so ruggedly handsome, such a perfect bad boy with a protective knight’s heart.
“We can go home now, can’t we?” she asked. This house was amazing, but she wanted her own bed.
She wanted Mykola to herself for however long she had with him.
“Can we?”